A Fitness Routine That's Worked Wonders for My Body and My Mind

Having a healthy-looking appearance can do wonders for your psyche, and building a nice physique can be relatively easy as long as you keep it regular. In recent years I've discovered that a regular fitness routine is as essential as a healthy diet to keeping and maintaining a healthy-looking body. In just four years of keeping a regular exercise routine, I've lost 60 pounds and I couldn't be happier with the condition of my body.

The hardest part about going to a gym is getting up and going to the gym. The drudgery of getting in the car and driving to the nearest Planet Fitness or Bally's is more taxing than the exercise itself, so I decided that I would find a way to get my exercise at home. All I needed were a couple of dumbbells and a decent music player and I was all set.

How often do I work out and for how long?

The most important aspect of having a fitness routine is keeping it regular. The frequency and length of workouts depends upon fitness goals. My only fitness goal was to lose excess fat and look somewhat toned. To get there and maintain it, I work out 4-5 times a week at half-hour intervals.

My Workout Routine

I divide my workouts into three parts: aerobics, light weight-lifting, and abdominals. I begin with some stretching to warm up the muscles and prevent injury, and then I dive right in:

Aerobics

Aerobics is the calorie burner in my workout. Making this part of the routine fun is important to keep me coming back for more, so I turn to dancing. At first I started out following some of the many dance/fitness DVD's readily available on the market, but eventually I found that putting on some great dance music and doing my own dance routines work just as well.

Light Weightlifting

Lifting weights helps tone my muscles to a desirable level, and so I add just a small amount of weight training to my weekly workout routine. I keep two sets of dumbbells in the house, five and ten pounders, and I try to work on different muscle groups with each workout, such as chest, back and triceps, biceps, and shoulders.

Abs

Ab work strengthens your core and is central to looking and feeling good. Crunches are the most common of abdominal exercises and they're much easier to do than traditional sit-ups. Check out Basic Abdominal Exercises for a Flat Stomach to see some of the ab exercises I do to keep my stomach toned.

So that's all there is to my regular fitness routine. Keeping my workouts regular has given me the body I've always wanted and not only do I look better, I feel better, too!